🚀 go-pugleaf

Eric P. Scott writes
> In article <HARDY.92Nov9233637@golem.ps.uci.edu>
> 	hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) writes:
> >If your machine is on a network and you know an ntp (or xntp) host  
at
> >Brown, and if your machine is running ntp (check you /etc/hostconfig
> >file), ntp.drift records the drift of your clock vis-a-vis the  
master
> >clock. ntp is adjusting the logical time. 
> 
> If your machine isn't synchronized to network time (e.g. a
> standalone "home" machine), you'll need to hook it to the
> network temporarily so it can "learn" what its natural
> tendency is.  (If NeXT is shipping systems with software
> preinstalled, why don't they do this as part of burn-in???
> Or does it change as the hardware ages?)
> 
> 					-=EPS=-

Because the amount of drift depends on the usage of the machine.  The  
clock issues an interupt every nth of a second ( 50 on most unix boxes)  
however, the priority of the interupt is fairly low, so a lot of the  
time it has to wait for service.  If it doesn't get serviced before the  
next interupt, then a tick is lost.  A quiestent machine keeps pretty  
good time.

I never have figured out why Casio can make a watch that keeps time to  
a second per month, but no unix box can do so.  Why can't they put a  
casio set of guts in there, and periodically update the system clock  
from it...